Hamari Adhuri Kahani Review

Mohit Suri has become one of the hottest directors in Bollywood in the past few years after delivering big hits like Murder 2, Aashiqui 2 and Ek Villain. Funnily enough, Hamari Adhuri Kahani is the first time in 5 years a Mohit Suri film doesn’t have a number in its title. Anyhow, he has now teamed up with two actors who have been going through the worst phases of their respective careers; Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi just can’t get it right these days. That is why, inspite of having a chartbuster title track, Hamari Adhuri Kahani hasn’t created the required buzz to get a good opening. Is the film any good and will it continue Mohit Suri’s good streak?

Story: Hamari Adhuri Kahani begins with a flashback that ruins a major twist in the film. Vasudha (Vidya Balan) and Hari (Rajkumar Rao) are involved in an abusive marriage where Hari is a typical male chauvinist. He gets his name tattooed on Vasudha’s body to assert his dominance. Fortunately (rather than unfortunately) Hari gets booted away to jail on the suspicion of being a terrorist and Vasudha has to bring their child up all by herself working as a florist. By a chance encounter after half a decade, Vasudha meets a mega-rich hotelier Aarav Ruparel (Emraan) and through a song and some heavy duty dialogues they fall in love. But the problem arises when Hari makes a comeback and the fairytale love story of Vasudha and Aarav gets destroyed.

Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan - Hamari Adhuri Kahani

Hamari Adhuri Kahani Movie Review

Screenplay and Direction: ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ should have been better called ‘Hamari Sobby Kahani’. It is a sob story where the lead actress cries her way through the film. The intentions of the makers can’t be doubted as the basic storyline shows promise but the dialogues by Shagufta Rafique and the ultra melodramatic treatment makes ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ almost a torture to sit through. The spiced up drama and the emotional quotient of the film, glamorised on Indian television for decades, could be liked by a lot of people, no doubt, but the ones who aren’t fans of such extra emotions should avoid the film. Additionally, ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ gets bogged down by the slow pace of proceedings.

The technicalities of ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ are deft in the sense that it has been shot with a refined touch. The production design is grand and the costumes are realistic too for the characters they portray. The editing could have been spruced up a bit and the duration should have been trimmed which would have sped up the pace of the film. Also, the editing decision to reveal such an important twist right at the start is baffling.

The music of ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ is very good but doesn’t quite reach the heights of Mohit Suri’s last few directorial ventures. The comparisons were inevitable and the music fails to live up to expectations. The title track sung by Arijit Singh is fantastic and high on emotions but its popularity is let down by the disappointing picturization. The other songs are also of earworm quality like Humnava and Hasi. (What’s with most of the songs in the film starting with H? Coincidence? Could be!)

Acting: ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ stands on the pillars of its three lead actors. Vidya Balan doesn’t have much to do in the film except for crying her lungs out but she still manages to show maturity even in such a silly character. But ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ is another proof of Vidya Balan going wrong with her movie choices. We expect more from her now that Kangana Ranaut has slowly started becoming the new Vidya Balan in the industry. Emraan Hashmi plays a character that he hasn’t really played before – a subdued character who is supposed to speak through his gazes and stares. We are used to see him perform loudmouth, streetsmart, underdog characters. However, Emraan doesn’t disappoint and does whatever he can to salvage the film. Watch him act in the scene where he tears up. Rajkumar Rao, again is let down by a shoddily written, one dimensional character and he shouts and squirms through his role. We expect better. Namit Das and Madhurima Tuli are decent in their cameos.

Conclusion: ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ has a good fundamental story which holds promise but the overtly emotional treatment and the baffling bipolar decisions made by the characters, only ends up frustrating the viewer. At one point it promises to be progressive and then meanders into regressive territory once again.

Positives:

  • The summary of the book from which Hamari Adhuri Kahani was adapted sounds appealing
  • The title track is a chartbuster
  • Emraan Hashmi shows restraint and does well

Negatives:

  • The overtly emotional approach to the story
  • The dialogues are too sappy
  • Vidya Balan and Rajkumar Rao’s characters are one note and one dimensional
  • The pace is slow and a lot of people will find it boring

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Also Read: Hamari Adhuri Kahani Critics Review

Advertisements

56 Comments

  • 7th back 2 back flops for Emraan. All the reviews are very bad. I have not seen a single 2.5 ratings yet.

  • Going to take a trip to the crazy monsters world of Jurassic World. Not going to spend my money to see Balan’s tears..

  • If balan’s dirty picture was all abot entertainment and entertainment(not akki’s dog) hamari serial type kahani is all abot crying and crying

  • Haha I m still laughing….
    What is happening to emraan hashmi….
    he should take a break from Bollywood…

  • thank u emmy for doing another crap and allowing ddd to now bcm a sure shot hit in india while its already a big success overseas.
    btw,mohit u r too big director to b bogged down by one failure.just remove emmy from ur system and start working again with youngistaan

  • emmy got a successful director,popular music and a highly talented popular actress yet has failed again to gv hit.hahaba

    hope youngistaan haters now start respecting our achievement

  • Feeling Terrible for emraan…Even though emraan performance is good…But what went wrong is Mohit suri’s direction(He was good in his previous movies),Editing,dialouges…I expect much from Vidya and Rajkumar..
    Mohit suri once tell that this is a story of a women…So,Vidya would have to do justice to her role…
    Aashiqui-2 also get 2 stars from indicine…But it went blockbuster for its popular songs…Now,Let’s see how HAK perform at boi…I predict Average/Above Average…

  • Superb film.. I liked it….
    It has taken a good opening at plexes better than ddd….
    Single screens also good…

    It is a good film…. Better than crap ddd,abcd2…

    Audience r fool to watch meaningless craps , party songs and ghatiya movies like hskd,htp,yjhd,..

    It is welcome change…

    @arjun youngistan fan..
    Ddd is flop. Haha

  • All eyes…. On a beautiful… Film… Coming this… Eid…
    Box office going…. To explode…

  • Best film of the year. dont believe the bad reviews, this film is very entertaining and a masterpiece. Emraan and Vidya will win every award this year. More entertaining that Tanu weds Manu returns and PK.

  • only Raaz 4 or murder 4 can save emmy bhai ,Azhar will be also a flop movie coz its a biopic on azharuddin.he has a bad image in india

  • It is by far best film of 2015…
    Audiences r loving it…

    Better than crap ddd , hskd,htp, tevar,roy,bv….

  • Its means another failure for Emran Hashmi, i truly feeling very sad for Emran Hashmi he is talented actor.

  • Movie has taken a bumper start at single screens in Bihar.. Double of dil dhadakne do,tevar and bombay velvet…

    Prince of masses emraan..

    Rajasthan has opened to 30 percent and noon occupancy 40 percent… Better than any film of this year except gabbar..

  • Nice review Indicine… I expected a dated tired rom rom yawnafest movie n it seems many not so strict but streetwise smart critiKs agree that this film is about a decade too late….!

    Great review- 4.5 stars for being accurate and calling a boring non entertaining film exactly what it is- boring non entertaining film….

  • It seems you struggled to find any positives going by your review.

    From the trailer, film was another standard rom-com. It wasn’t as exciting as Ek Villain nor did it connect to youth and today’s audience in the way aashiqui 2 did. And Emraan-Vidya doesn’t make for a ‘hot and happening’ pairing that people would go see the film for, unless it’s a film like Dirty Picture.

  • Expecting HAK to get atleast an average verdict.
    Only salman khan can make a 2star rated movie a BLOCKBUSTER

  • @nipun bhaad me jaaye review…
    Audiences r loving it…

    @arjun youngistan fan…

    Haha.. What happened to ‘superstar’ ranbir kapoor ‘s bombay velvet????..did less than mr x… Now run behind deepika for tamasha… Hahaha

  • People r loving emraan hashmi ‘s act…
    And see fatty arjun kapoor and wooden sid… All were criticising his tasteless performances in villain and 2states.. Haha..

    Emraan is better actor than arjun-sid,ranbir…

    Ohh… Big mistake.. Don’t need to compare with such terrible actors..

  • You have done it again, Indicine! This review is inspired from ‘Bheegi Bheegi Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ song review from Gangster movie.

  • why user out here are bashing it without watching the movie? If did not liked it do not post the comments on these article. Indicine has just given the review and the user are directly bashing emraan for no reason.

  • Feeling sad for Emmy.It’s high time he starts watching Hindi movies
    But on a serious note he has been unlucky since some of his movies have been delayed releases and couple of them(ETD and Ghanchakkar) had the potential to become a success had the climax not been a let down.He is a fine actor and certainly his career isn’t over by any means.

Leave a Comment